This print was inspired by wanted to expand on some old existing skills by making a layered print.

I've been wanting to try linoleum cutting (linocut) and printing again, since I first learned how in high school. That was a long time ago, but thankfully not so long that I forgot. I chose to do a layered print so I could have a colored floral background for the white sugar skull. I did a few test prints before settling on a printing style and placement I liked. After I perfect the printing, I will make more and have them available for sale in my Etsy shop. Each one will be slightly different, due to hand printing these, so you will have a one of a kind piece of art.

Every other Thursday in the 5.0 year, I will post my own Dia de la Abby creations Every Thursday in the 4.0 year, I posted my Dia de la Abby creations and occasionally tutorials with instructions on how I made my pieces. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on Facebook, Google+ and/or Twitter..

Josh Damaso is back with two more skull creations. He explains, "I've always been fascinated with skulls. Specially fusion with other elements, specially the heart. Love will kill and one will kill for love. Plus they are two of the most important organs in our bodies." "I mostly work on pencils and acrylics, very few on color pencil or oil based. I work as a tattoo artist here in the Bronx, New York. Love the profession and love Skull-A-Day. Always something new to learn everyday."

I always love the combo of a heart and a skull. Like Josh said, "they are two of the most important organs in our bodies". We also love with both of them, which can be beautiful, heartbreaking and deadly. They are intertwined, even though they are in two different areas of our bodies.

I like the combination of a skull with flowers and water. It reminds me of island or old world water burials where the corpse would be placed on a wooden float, sometimes decorated with flowers to cover the scent and set on fire as it would be pushed out into the water. I see there is a snake included, which looks like writhing flames among the skull and roses. I like these natural sort of burials better than the traditional ones of modern countries where we embalm, entomb and bury the person in a very costly manner. Personally, I'd rather be cremated and crushed. After I die, the person is gone and I'm only a corpse. Until then, I'll happy enjoy morbid art...and other kinds to.

Greta “Aunt Acid” told us: “This is one of several skulls I made in ceramics class my 2nd year at college. It is made of porcelain and was Raku-fired.”

Smokey C says:

Raku is such a wonderful choice for a ceramic skull. The natural blackening is a wonderful accent to this piece. One of my favorite things about Raku pieces is that an additional sense is embraced in experiencing the art. You have the sight and the feel of it, but Raku also has a distinct smell of fire to it that I find myself drawn to. Thank you for submitting your work for us to share.

The wonderfully talented Clay Morrow, whose awesome Lego work will be featured on this site soon, has kindly taken the time to make a set of DIY instructions for my very own 308. Lego Skull! Download them HERE (PDF).

When I originally built this I just worked with a bunch of random used bricks I bought online. I had no pattern and really couldn't explain how it was made. It was a real treat to have Clay disect the piece and rebuild it digitally (and make a few improvements along the way). If you're a Lego fan I hope you'll download the instructions and give this a try. If you make your own of course I'd love to see the results!

Thanks again to Clay for his extra effort on this. Be sure to check out all the marvelous Lego creations he's been making lately HERE.

Three, yeah, it's a magic number. Somewhere in this Skull-A-Day community you'll find Dan Springer with three skulls for you and me and that's the magic number.

Every triangle has 3 corners and every Skull-A-Day post should have 3 skulls, no more no less. Yet I digress, it's not "skulls"-a-day. I still love the simple and clean skull art that Dan creates on wooden canvases. Thanks again for sharing the great skull work, Dan. I greatly look forward to the next three.

And yes, I actually sat to the side of the stage the entire show and worked away at this painting the entire time! I admit it was a bit dark, and more than a bit distracting, but I had a blast and the audience seemed to as well. If you look close you can even see some glitter from the ladies stuck to the painting!

If you're in the area, I hope you'll swing by and check out the paintings in person. They'll be up for the next month or so. If you can't make it, you can still see a bit more of the space via my pix HERE.

Oh and FYI, several of the pieces have already sold, but if you're interested in purchasing one of the remaining ones (for just $200 each) you should get in touch with Jenn at Parlor Gallery.

Thomas Kukich, artist and owner of Exile Leather (NSFW) submitted this leather skull mask. He explains about the mask and photo, "I hand mold Mardi Gras and Halloween masks out of leather. The mask is by Exile Leather, the Model is: Acid Grave and the photographer is: Tim Kruskamp.Acid Grave is a friend and has done a couple of photo shoots with local photographers featuring my work. You'd think she'd pick masks that are feminine and pretty; nope she goes for the spooky ones. Somehow she makes them look sexy."

I love that the model chose one of the creepier skull masks. It works really well with her hair color and skin tone, giving her a ghostly appearance. The styling of the shoot helps with the creepy factor. Leather is one medium that I haven't worked in, but am always fascinated by. It holds molded shapes well and can be embossed with details. It's definitely a favored choice for mask makers as its limits are only your imagination.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Phil Cheney, the behind the scenes fulfillment person here at Skull-A-Day, and Co-Curator of the recent Skull Appreciation Day Exhibit, wrote: “I have been staring at this 1865 map for months doing a documentation on the history of Poplar Lawn Park, and recently my eyes focused away from the park and noticed the two simulacra in the lower center, and now I can stop seeing them.”

Ashraf “Camel” El-Masry part of the Mailart Mafia and Poison Label Productions, found this simulacra while looking at “Google Mars”.

“AZATHOTHX” discovered this skull driver on Google maps while looking for something else and asked: “How many more skull drivers are out there?”

Sextant C says:

Like the olden days of traveling where it took a month to go a short distance, I too have reached my monthly destination as it is my time to hand off simulacra duties to Azurafae . Thank you all for submitting this fine collection of found simulacra, and I will be back on duty in September with more exciting finds from you wonderful searchers.

Keep sending those pictures in to our submissions address. Just keep in mind that since we only post simulacra once a week it might take a little longer than normal for it to be posted.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

For all of you roller skate fans out there who have a special place in your heart for the hardwood floors and quad style skates, this one's for you(and you know who you are). This rolling duo from Kayle Whitham sets our weekend of skulls in motion.

I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who will harken back to a day before skates were inline, extreme, and in some instances more dangerous. A day when going to the roller rink meant trying to not look like a fool in front of the opposite sex in hopes that you wouldn't be alone during a couples skate. Besides, you'll score points with any pirate if you dance with his daughter. I'm just sayin'.... Thanks for sharing your skully skating couple, Kayle!

Friday, June 24, 2011

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year...

This is the last of the paintings I've made to display at the Cabinet of Curiosities show which opens tomorrow at Asbury Lanes. If you're in the NY/NJ area, I hope you'll come by and check them out in person! I will actually be painting during the opening as well so I will post those pieces when I get back.

Agent, Azurafae, and myself, Tatman, are taking turns reflecting on 17 of our perWelcome to another addition of Flashback Friday.** This year the guest editors, Citizen sonal favorite skulls from the previous four years of postings. So please join us as we visit the archives and add our additional commentary on some of the original pieces.

Wood burning art is such a simple yet masterful form. The ability to scar the face of the grain with heated metal is minimal in requirements, but an artistic hand can bring forth the forms of smoldering splinters into shapes of great detail. I was lucky enough to be able to build myself a new workbench, of wood, this past weekend and now I'm feeling a bit inspired to make it more ornate. Thanks again for more inspiration, Noah!

**Flashback Friday was a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.0. Each week during year 3.0 The Skullmaster posted the original skull along with some additional commentary in order from lowest to highest rated, with the #1 skull appearing in the last week of year 3.0, all 52 can be found here.

Metals Artist ELI told us: “I stumbled across your website and thought it looked cool. I have made two human skull reliefs, and one T-Rex fossil skull.”

C Gauge says:

I have always been curious on how to do this art form, do you work on the front or on the back to create this? I really like how the textured background make these objects look as if they are part of an ongoing excavation. Thank you for finding us cool enough to submit your work to, our moms will be jealous, however, that another person says we are.

Since it is Friday lets flashback to the Skullmaster's copper creation during the original project here, and some nice things T-man had to say about it here.

Here is a batch of 7 Skull Quilts. They are currently hanging at Gallery 5 in Richmond, VA. I do have more finished quilts. I will post those in a separate post next week. All of these quilts will be auctioned off on Ebay after the show closes on July 8th. The proceeds of these auctions will go to Becky's Fund, a DC based organization that helps victims of domestic violence. We will provide information about the auctions closer to auction time and when they are live. If you have any questions related to The Skull Quilt Project, please email me at abby@skulladay.com. Your questions will be answered faster that way.

Lindsay Pulver from Minneapolis, MN submitted "two illustrations of two different bird skulls." and "a piece of jewelry I made out of polymer clay, it's a skull cap with antlers."

I love the intricate and unusual shapes of bird skulls. These are wonderful pieces that highlight those delicate details. The first one's eye sockets are so large, that I worry about it gouging out my eyeballs. The crown of the second one reminds me of a dinosaur. The skull cap jewelry with horns reminds me of Visigoth helmets. I think they would have been more menacing if their helmets were made from a skull.

Welcome Erin, we are glad you found us. Now that you have tested the water feel free to jump on in, and don't forget to send us updates. Don't worry Paul, you will get another chance at this in October, seems Spring is the wrong season for rapturing. It sort of makes sense because if we have a winter like we did last year, I would expect October to start 6 months of hell for me. Thank you both for submitting your work for us to share.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year...

Just a straight forward piece, using smaller brush strokes and washes of color. Only a few more before I head up to show these at Asbury Lanes in NJ this weekend! I think when I'm done with the batch for the show I'll start trying out some that are facing in other directions.

Andrew Martin is one lucky student who enjoyed a visit from the Skull Master to his school. His only regret was being tardy with finising this skull in time to show Noah in person, but he has no time limit for sharing it with us.

Wood and bone lead parallel lives that many of us don't realize. They're both very strong yet easily breakable, they were both once living organisms, and we don't really get to see the composition of either until they're dead(or you're a doctor). The jagged edges of this wood cut piece make it appear to have been made from broken bones. Especially considering the broken end of one of the crossbones. Thanks for sharing your nifty saw work, Andrew.

Monday, June 20, 2011

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year...

I felt like I needed to mix things up and use a color that I hasn't come up in any of the pieces so far. This just uses ultramarine blue and white. Still playing with loose strokes, though this time with shorter more angular ones.

Ale Amorin, a sculptor from Brazil, submitted these pieces for your viewing pleasure.

When I go into art history museums, I always marvel at the sculptures. I love seeing the ones carved out of stone. I'm amazed that these artists have the ability to look at the stone and see these pieces within them. The same thing goes for these pieces above which appear to be clay and any piece of art. You see the materials and the shape of the subject forms in your mind the way it forms in reality. I could see the two above pieces in a museum next to historical pieces, since they have similar lines. The curves in the first one make me want to run my fingers along it the way I would along a broken conch shell. The second one reminds me of religious reliefs, which tend to be creepier to me than other works of art. I could see this skull being part of a biblical story.

Slim who directs television commercials in Johannesburg, South Africa said: “Hey there, here are some skull pics I have taken as part of a pic-a-day project using my iphone and various apps. They are ‘found’ images and stuff I generally find interesting / odd.”

App C says:

Congratulations on your watchful project. You have some wonderful pictures in your collection. Thank you for sharing some of your images with us, and be sure to let us know if you ever get an opportunity to post your collection online for us to see.

Keep sending those pictures in to our submissions address. Just keep in mind that since we only post simulacra once a week it might take a little longer than normal for it to be posted.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Thanks to the awesomeness of the Skull Master we have a number of skull items on our "Free Stuff" page. Things like patterns, puzzles, fonts, and a bunch of stencils. We love seeing pics of items adorned with these stencils so here's a few to fill your weekend with even more skulls.

Noel Wyatt in Derby, UK plastered his bass drum head with a rowdy bunch of headbangers.

Alex in Santa Cruz is a wall climbing cat that writes, "Thanks for putting some of your stencils up on the website. I liked them a lot and decided to decorate a climbing wall I was constructing with them".

Megan from Rochester, NY submitted this pic and note, "Attached are some pictures of some tees and tanks I stenciled using the #9 skull stencil! I made them as christmas gifts and it was economical and fun. I printed the skull stencil onto a thick acetate (like an overhead transparency) and then used an X-acto knife to trace the stencil and pop out the shapes. I used simple bone colored acrylic paint mixed with textile medium so that the design holds up to washing and wearing. My friends and family loved them! Oh, and then I designed and printed the tee tags too!".

This color blast skull comes from Shelby who, "Immediately printed out one of the stencils and spray painted it. It was a vampire skull. However, I didn't cut out all too well, and my ink ran out while printing. Nonetheless this is the outcome".

And Adrian Vallejo of Amarillo, Texas kept it simply straight with a great white on black stenciled binder.

Thanks to all of you who submit your stenciled items. We love to see them and we'll always post more if you keep submitting them.

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No permission is necessary to repost images from this site to your own blog, we just ask that you please give proper credit to the artist that created the piece and provide a link back to Skull-A-Day and/or the specific post it came from. The more links the merrier! Thanks for your support of the project.